ROCHESTER — The Greater Rochester Authors’ Fair, presented by the Rochester Times and Rochester Main Street, in conjunction with Rochester Public Library and Rochester Economic Development Department, was held in the library’s large meeting room, last Saturday.

To the delight of the organizers, the first-time event, which was divided into three panels, was well attended and after each of the sets of five or six authors had talked about their books, writing techniques, publishing and reaching the readers, the question and answer periods were equally lively and informative.

Mayor TJ Jean opened the event shortly before 10:30 a.m. with words of welcome, and delivered a proclamation naming April 27 Authors’ Day. The framed document now hangs, appropriately, in the public library.

There were three sessions, each running for around an hour. The first genre was Children, Families and Young Adults, followed by Non-Fiction, and then Fiction. There was a half-hour break between each session, to give people in the audience a chance to chat with the authors and to buy books.

“I thought it was great for the City of Rochester and all the creative writing talent, and an inspiration to potential writers in the audience to learn about the writing process,” said Rochester Main Street Executive Director Mike Provost, who acted as emcee for the event.

“The mayor’s proclamation was awesome, and I could have listened to Fred Hall all day,” added Provost.Nonagenarian Hall, on the Non-fiction panel, was recalling, from his memoir, the day he landed on Omaha Beach in World War II, and how his company had fortunately managed to attain higher ground, under enemy fire, by means of a gully. “The luck of the draw,” is how he described it.The Fair’s organizing committee is expected to meet later in May to assess the event and the format, and to decide if another should be planned for April 2014. Meanwhile, they expressed their appreciation to Studley Flower Garden and to Jenny Wren Gallery for their contributions to the comfort of the writers and the beautification of their presentation table.